Category: Nazi-Palestinian Link

Introduction: A US National Archives report released in 2010 titled “Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, US Intelligence and the Cold War” documents Nazi influence in the Middle East. This report is an addendum to a 2004 US government report, “US Intelligence and the Nazis” and both are based on thousands of documents declassified under the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. Of significance, this report supports the significant role that Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem played in WWII as well as the documenting the link between Adbel Nasser, the second President of Egypt and the Nazis.

In this article we trace Haj Amin al-Husseini from his role in the British Mandate for Palestine between WWI and WWII, through his meeting with Adolf Hitler where he secured the Fuhrer’s promise for “Arab liberation” and the”destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere to his close relationship with Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the Nazi concentration camps, to his role immediately after the war in the politics of the Middle East, specifically Egypt.

Haj Amin al-Husseini – Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

Haj Amin al-Husseini also known as Mohammed (Effendi) Amin al-Husseini was appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921 by the British under the Mandate for Palestine. The role of the position of Grand Mufti was as the supreme Muslim religious leader. He used the position to promote Islam, push for Arab independence and oppose the establishment of a Jewish national home in the British Mandate for Palestine.

al-Husseini-president-World-Islamic-Congress-1931

In his determination for Arab independence, al-Husseini incited his followers to a three-year war against the Jews in Palestine and the British who administered the Palestine Mandate, which is known as the 1936-39 Arab Revolt. The British published the Peel Report in 1937 recommending the partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs, however the Arabs rejected the Peel plan and escalated their revolt. Evading a British arrest warrant, al-Husseini fled British Palestine and took refuge in the French Mandate of Lebanon. When World War II started, the Mufti was asked to leave Lebanon and first went to the British Mandate of Iraq, escaped via Tehran to Italy and eventually ended up in Berlin, where he lived until the end of the war.

Once in Berlin, the Mufti received an enthusiastic reception by the “Islamische Zentralinstitut” and the whole Islamic community of Germany, which welcomed him as the “Führer of the Arabic world“.

The Mufti and Hitler

On meeting Adolf Hitler on November 28, 1941 in Berlin, the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini requested backing for Arab independence and support in opposing the establishment of a Jewish national home in the British Mandate for Palestine, however al-Husseini got much more than he sought.

[actual German archive documents of the meeting between the Mufti and the Fuhrer, as well as the transcript in previous post]

Adolf Hitler himself told al-Husseini of his intention to eliminate the Jews of British Palestine in their November 28, 1941 meeting in Berlin. In that meeting, Hitler said that the outcome of the war in Europe Nazis and the Middle East would also decide the fate of the Arab world. Hitler told al-Husseini that German troops intended to break through the Caucasus region and move into the Middle East and that this would result in the liberation of the Arabs there. Hitler said that Germany’s objective was the destruction of the Jews.

Archived documents on German Foreign policy (posted in the earlier article, link above) document Adolf Hitler promising the Grand Mufti:
(1) “Arab liberation”
(2) “destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the protection of British power”(3) letting the Grand Mufti become the “authoritative spokesman for the Arab world” where he would “set off the Arab operations, which he had secretly prepared“.

[Editorial note: It would appear that his desire for “Arab liberation” and the “destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere”made Adolf Hitler the first advocate for the “Free Palestine” movement. Wait until you read below who joined Hitler and al-Husseini (the Grand Mufti) in the 1950’s! Hint: he became President of Egypt.]

Hitler’s third promise to al-Husseini was that he was to become the “authoritative spokesman for the Arab world” is supported by a recently released US National Archives report titled “Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, US Intelligence and the Cold War” (an addendum to a 2004 US government report, “US Intelligence and the Nazis“). This report is based on thousands of documents declassified under the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. This report supports that theNazis planned for al-Husseini to serve as leader after Nazi conquest. More on that below.

Note: The balance of this article is based on this newly released US National Archives report titled “Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, US Intelligence and the Cold War”. Photos were added by us, to support the text. We have included the references cited in the report throughout the rest of the article to support that this is far from conjecture.

Nazi Financial Support of the Mufti

The report documents that after the war, Carl Berthold Franz Rekowski, an official of the German Foreign Office who had dealt with Husseini, testified that the Foreign Office financially supported the two Arab leaders (Husseini and an Iraqi named Gailani), their families, and other Arabs in their entourage who had fled to Germany after the coup. The report documents that al-Husseini lived in a villa in the Krumme Lanke neighborhood of Berlin. The report states that Husseini was a believer in a Pan-Arab state and that his closest ties were with the SS. The CIA file on al-Husseini indicated that he had a staff of 20–30 men in Berlin and from spring 1943 to spring 1944, al-Husseini was paid 50,000 marks monthly [JRofC note: 600,000 marks per year]for operational expenses and in addition received living expenses averaging 80,000 marks per month [JRofC note: 960,000 marks per year].A German field marshal received a base salary of 26,500 marks per year. [JRofC note: al-Husseini was paid 1,560,000 marks per year by the Nazis]

Of great significance and supporting what Hitler said to Husseini when they met, Rekowski learned through conversations with other Foreign Office officials that Nazi authorities planned to use Husseini to control Palestine after Germany conquered them.

The Mufti – Nazi SS recruiter in Croatia

The report states that in the fall of 1943 Husseini went to the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi ally, to recruit Muslims for the Waffen-SS. During that trip he told the troops of the newly formed Bosnian-Muslim 13th Mountain Waffen-SS division that the entire Muslim world ought to follow their example. Husseini also organized a 1944 mission for Palestinian Arabs and Germans to carry out sabotage and propaganda after German planes dropped them into Palestine by parachute. In discussions with the Foreign Intelligence branch of the RSHA, Husseini insisted that the Arabs take command after they landed and direct their fight against the Jews of Palestine, not the British authorities.

SS- OfficerWilhelmBeisner had frequent contact with Husseini during the war and told Rekowski that Husseini had good ties with Heinrich Himmlerand with Waffen-SS Gen. Gottlob Berger, who handled the recruitment of non-German forces into the Waffen-SS.

The Mufti and Heinrich Himmler

For those that do not know who Heinrich Himmler is, let us provide a brief background.

Heinrich Himmler was head of the Gestapo and the head of the Waffen-SS, under which al-Husseini recruited Muslim fighters. Himmler was also the main architect and organizer of the mass murder of Jews in the Third Reich. In 1933, Himmler set up the first concentration camp in Dachau and with Hitler’s encouragement over the next several years, extended the range of those who ‘qualified’ for internment in concentration camps.

From the outset of his position as Reichsfuhrer of the SS, Himmler introduced the principle of racial selection and special marriage laws which would ensure the systematic coupling of people of ‘high value’. It was Himmler’s vision to transform the idea of racial selectionfrom a negative concept based on anti-Semitisminto a positive concept for building up the SS and forming a perfect Aryan Race.

Himmler’s visionof this perfect ‘Aryan race’of blue-eyed, blond haired people was to be achieved by literally ‘cultivating them’ based on the ‘laws of selection’ and according to very specific criteria of physical characteristics as well as mental and physical abilities. Simultaneous with that, was the systematic extermination of Jews and others seen as inferior in his instrument of perfect design for such, the concentration camps.

Below are some photos of Husseini and Himmler; the first one they are sharing a glass of wine at one of the concentration camps, looking over architectural plans for another concentration camp, presumably Auschwitz.

Mufti al-Husseini and Himmler

Both the SS leaders, including Hitler and Himmler had common values with Husseini. According the documents declassified under the Nazi War Declassification Act of 1997, both stated that Nazism and Islam had common values as well as common enemies—above all, the Jews.

The Mufti wrote a pamphlet for the SS Handschar division, called ‘Islam i Zidovstvo’ (Islam and Judaism) which closed with a quotation from Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, a Sunni Islam Hadith which states:

“The Day of Judgement will come, when the Muslims will crush the Jews completely: And when every tree behind which a Jew hides will say: ‘There is a Jew behind me, Kill him!“.

Muslim soliers of Handschar Waffen SS reading Islam and Judaism

As well, on 1 March 1944 while speaking on Radio Berlin, al-Husseini said:

‘Arabs, rise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you.“

Husseini after the War

According to the report, right after the war ended a group of Palestinian-Arab soldiers in the British Army who were stationed in Lebanon had staged anti-French demonstrations. They carried around a large picture of Husseini and declared him to be the
“sword of the faith.”

According to one source considered reliable by the American intelligence organization known as the Strategic Services Unit (SSU), British officials objected to French plans to prosecute Husseini, fearing that this would cause political unrest in Palestine.

In October 1945, British head of Palestine’s Criminal Investigation Division Arthur Giles (who used the title Bey) told the assistant American military attaché in Cairo that the Mufti might be the only person who could unite the Palestine Arabs and“cool off the Zionists”.

The report documents that after the war, Husseini was held in Paris when ” “Palestinian Arab leaders”and “various Muslim extremists”agitated tobring him back to the Middle East“. As prospects for a peaceful settlement in the British Mandate for Palestine declined, a delegate of the Palestine Higher Arab Committee went to Paris in June 1946 and told Husseini to get ready to escape France.

Arab leaders from Morocco and Algeria worked out the details of Husseini’s escape. According to the report, the French government learned of the plan but chose not to intervene in order to avoid offending the Arabs of North Africa.

Husseini flew to Syria, then went via Aleppo and Beirut to Alexandria, Egypt.

[from pg 22 of the report “Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, US Intelligence and the Cold War”, source: The Escape of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, August 2, 1946, NARA, RG 263, Grumbach Series 12]

Husseini denies Nazi-connection; blames Jews for spreading slander

According to the report, in 1947 Husseini denied that he had worked for the Nazis during the war. It is documented that Husseini told one acquaintance that he hoped soon to have documentary evidence “rebutting this slander,which the Jews were spreading.” Husseini said that he had been forced to take refuge in Germany simply because British wanted to capture him.

While physically absent from British Mandated Palestine, al-Husseini continued to exert a great deal of influence from exile and backed by Muslim Brotherhood and other Arab states, the Arabs rejected the UN Partition Plan for Palestine with the intention of preventing the establishment of a Jewish state, no matter how small.

In the early 1950’s, a blend of Nazi ideology and Muslim-based hatred of Jews, inspired by the preaching of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and Haj Amin al-Husseini began to grow in influence. In Part 2 of this article, we will cover the link between al-Husseini and the Muslim Brotherhood and its direct impact on the brand of radical Islam we see today.

Here is a small taste:

Below is a photograph showing Yasser Arafat,Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization at Husseini’s funeral, in 1974.

[Note: Arafat was born in Cairo, Egypt. His father (Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini) was from Gaza City but his father’s mother, Yasser’s paternal grandmother, was Egyptian. Arafat’s mother (Zahwa Abul Saud) was from a Jerusalem-based family.]

Yasser Arafat, funeral Amin Al Husseini

According to Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann’s deputy Dieter Wisliceny (subsequently executed as a war criminal), al-Husseini’s influence was critical to the German decision to annihilate the Jews of Europe.

As Wisliceny testified at the Nuremberg Trials in July 1946:

“The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewryand had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan… He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chambers of Auschwitz.”

In addition to al-Husseini’s tie to the Nazis and the Middle East, the report exposes another; that of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s link to the Nazis

In 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser lead a revolution in Egypt and became its second president however it was not known until very recently that along with Husseini, Nasser worked for the Nazis during war.

The document below, declassified under the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act and contained in the report (pg 23) provides the evidence that Gamal Abdel Nasser (called Jamal Nasir in one document and Gamal Nasir in another) had worked for the Germans during the war.

Furthermore, this document shows that both al-Husseini and Abdel Nasser reported to SS Officer Wilhelm Beisner during WWII.

Husseini and Gamal Abdel Nasr of Cairo, Egypt on Nazi chartHusseini with Abdel Nasser Egyptian President

According to the report, Wilhelm Beisner spent the last part of the war in Italy, where American forces apparently captured him but Beisner escaped from American internment with French help and went to work for French intelligence in Austria.

In late 1950 an Austrian official who located Beisner in Munich reported that Beisner had a business enterprise in Munich named Omnia that probably served as cover for French intelligence activities.

[from pg 25 of the report “Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, US Intelligence and the Cold War”, source: Chief of Station Vienna to Chief of Station Karlsruhe, December 8, 1950, and Chief of Station Karlsruhe to Chief of Station Vienna, December 29, 1950, and January 8, 1951, NARA, RG 263, E ZZ-18, B 10, Friedrich Beissner Name File]

According to the report, West German intelligence in March 1952 indicated that Beisner had been involved in black-market arms transactionsamong Switzerland, Spain, and France and that discovery of these activities forced him to go to Cairo, where he allegedly continued to work for the French and enjoyed good connections with the Americans.

The report goes on to say that Beisner seemed to have been active inpurchasing arms for the Egyptian government. prior to Gamal Abdel Nasser taking power.

According to the report, in February 1958 Franz Rademacher, a former Naziliving in Damascus under a pseudonym told a CIA source in Syria that Gamal Abdel Nasserhad worked for the Germans during the war and thatBeisner had served as Nasser’s liaison and that Nasser and Beisner were still close.

According to the report,Beisner who played an important role in the systematic killing of millions of Jews under the Nazis, as well as a number of other former SS (Rademacher, Brunner, Deumling ) and police officials had not only found haven in –, but postwar employment in the Middle East.

It is from the safe shelter of the Middle East, that these former Nazis were “able to carry on and transmit to others Nazi racial-ideological anti-Semitism“ .

[from pg 28 of the report “Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, US Intelligence and the Cold War”]

Al-Husseini died in Egypt in 1974.

The section of the report dealing with the Middle East closes with the statement

“Perhaps one day the opening of archives in Middle Eastern countries will allow further insight into how far their (Nazi) influence went.”

Meeting between Adolf Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini on November 28, 1941 at the Reich Chancellory in Berlin

For years, Germany has taken responsibility for the Nazi role in the Holocaust, but what about the Palestinian role – specifically the role of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem; spiritual leader of the British Mandate for Palestine’s Arab Muslims?

Background – Who is Haj Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem?

Haj Amin al-Husseini also known as Mohammed (Effendi) Amin al-Husseini was appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921 by the British under the Mandate for Palestine. He used the position to promote Islam, push for Arab independence and oppose the establishment of a Jewish national home in the British Mandate for Palestine. Al-Husseini’s opposition to the British reached its peak during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in British Palestine and in 1937, evading an arrest warrant, al-Husseini fled British Palestine and took refuge in the French Mandate of Lebanon and then the British Mandate of Iraq.

On meeting Adolf Hitler on November 28, 1941 in Berlin, al-Husseini requested backing for Arab independence and support in opposing the establishment of a Jewish national home in the British Mandate for Palestine.

Below are the actual German records of the meeting between al-Husseini and Hitler, as well as the complete transcript.

Meeting between Adolf Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini on November 28, 1941 at the Reich Chancellory in Berlin

A transcript appears directly below each page. [Source: Time of Israel, Full Official Record What the Mufti said to Hitler, October 21, 2015]

1. Analytical List of Documents – pg XLVIII

Analytical List of Documents – pg XLVIII

November 30, 1941 Document 515, Page 881

Memorandum by an Official of the Foreign Minister’s SecretariatRecord of the conversation between Hitler and the Grand Mufti on November 28. Hitler promised to announce the hour of Arab liberation once the German armies stood south of the Caucasus but suggested that the declaration requested by the Mufti be put off for a few months.

2. No. 515, Page 881

November 1941

Memorandum by an Official of the Foreign Minister’s Secretariat

Fuh.57a g Rs Berlin, November 30, 1941

Documents on German Foreign Policy – pg 881

(transcript p 881)

The Grand Mufti began by thanking the Fuhrer for the great honor he had bestowed by receiving him. He wished to seize the opportunity to convey to the Fuhrer of the Greater German Reich, admired by the entire Arab world, his thanks of the sympathy which he had always shown for the Arab and especially the Palestinian cause, and to which he had given clear expression in his public speeches.

The Arab countries were firmly convinced that Germany would win the war and that the Arab cause would then prosper. The Arabs were Germany’s natural friends because they had the same enemies as had Germany, namely the English, the Jews and the Communists. Therefore they were prepared to cooperate with Germany with all their hearts and stood ready to participate in the war, not only negatively by the commission of acts of sabotage and the instigation of revolutions, but also positively by the formation of an Arab Legion.

The Arabs could be more useful to Germany as allies than might be apparent at first glance, both for geographical reasons and because of the suffering inflicted upon them by the English and the Jews. Furthermore, they had had close relations with all Muslim nations, of which they could make use in behalf of the common cause. The Arab Legion would be quite easy to raise. An appeal by the Mufti to the Arab countries and the prisoners of Arab, Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan nationality in Germany would produce a great number of volunteers eager to fight. Of Germany’s victory the Arab world was firmly convinced, not only because the Reich possessed a large army, brave soldiers and military leaders of genius, but also because the Almighty could never award the victory to an unjust cause.

‘The Arabs could be more useful to Germany as allies than might be apparent at first glance, both for geographical reasons and because of the suffering inflicted upon them by the English and the Jews’
In this struggle, the Arabs were striving for the independence and unity of Palestine, Syria and Iraq. They had the fullest confidence

3. Page 882 Documents on German Foreign Policy

Documents on German Foreign Policy 882

(transcript pg 882)

in the Fuhrer and looked to his hand for the balm on their wounds, which had been inflicted upon them by the enemies of Germany.

The Mufti then mentioned the letter he had received from Germany, which stated that Germany was holding no Arab territories and understood and recognized the aspirations to independence and freedom of the Arabs, just as she supported the elimination of the Jewish national home.

A public declaration in this sense would be very useful for its propagandistic effect on the Arab peoples at this moment. It would rouse the Arabs from their momentary lethargy and give them new courage. It would also ease the Mufti’s work of secretly organizing the Arabs against the moment when they could strike. At the same time, he could give the assurance that the Arabs would in strict discipline patiently wait for the right moment and only strike upon an order from Berlin.

With regard to the events in Iraq, the Mufti observed that the Arabs in that country certainly had by no means been incited by Germany to attack England, but solely had acted in reaction to a direct English assault upon their honor.

The Turks, he believed, would welcome the establishment of an Arab government in the neighboring territories because they would prefer weaker Arab to strong European governments in the neighboring countries and, being themselves a nations of 7 million, they had moreover nothing to fear from the 1,700,000 Arabs inhabiting Syria, Transjordan, Iraq and Palestine.

France likewise would have no objections to the unification plan because it had conceded independence to Syria as early as 1936 and had given her approval to the unification of Iraq and Syria under King Faisal as early as 1933.

In these circumstances he was renewing his request that the Fuhrer make a public declaration so that the Arabs would not lose hope, which is so powerful a force in the life of nations. With such hope in their hearts the Arabs, as he had said, were willing to wait. They were not pressing for immediate realization for their aspirations; they could easily wait half a year or a whole year. But if they were not inspired with such a hope by a declaration of this sort, it could be expected that the English would be the gainers from it.

The Fuhrer replied that Germany’s fundamental attitude on these questions, as the Mufti himself had already stated, was clear. Germany stood for uncompromising war against the Jews. That naturally included active opposition to the Jewish national home in Palestine,

4. Page 883 November 1941

Documents on German Foreign Policy – pg 883

(transcript of pg 883)

which was nothing other than a center, in the form of a state, for the exercise of destructive influence by Jewish interests. Germany was also aware that the assertion that the Jews were carrying out the functions of economic pioneers in Palestine was a lie. The work there was done only by the Arabs, not by the Jews. Germany was resolved, step by step, to ask one European nation after the other to solve its Jewish problem, and at the proper time to direct a similar appeal to non-European nations as well.

Germany was at the present time engaged in a life and death struggle with two citadels of Jewish power: Great Britain and Soviet Russia. Theoretically there was a difference between England’s capitalism and Soviet Russia’s communism; actually, however, the Jews in both countries were pursuing a common goal. This was the decisive struggle; on the political plane, it presented itself in the main as a conflict between Germany and England, but ideologically it was a battle between National Socialism and the Jews. It went without saying that Germany would furnish positive and practical aid to the Arabs involved in the same struggle, because platonic promises were useless in a war for survival or destruction in which the Jews were able to mobilize all of England’s power for their ends.

‘Germany was resolved, step by step, to ask one European nation after the other to solve its Jewish problem, and at the proper time to direct a similar appeal to non-European nations as well’

The aid to the Arabs would have to be material aid. Of how little help sympathies alone were in such a battle had been demonstrated plainly by the operation in Iraq, where circumstances had not permitted the rendering of really effective, practical aid. In spite of all the sympathies, German aid had not been sufficient and Iraq was overcome by the power of Britain, that is, the guardian of the Jews.

The Mufti could not but be aware, however, that the outcome of the struggle going on at present would also decide the fate of the Arab world. The Fuhrer therefore had to think and speak coolly and deliberately, as a rational man and primarily as a soldier, as the leader of the German and allied armies. Everything of a nature to help in this titanic battle for the common cause, and thus also for the Arabs, would have to be done. Anything however, that might contribute to weakening the military situation must be put aside, no matter how unpopular this move might be.

Germany was now engaged in very severe battles to force the gateway to the northern Caucasus region. The difficulties were mainly with regard to maintaining the supply, which was most difficult as a result of the destruction of railroads and highways as well as the oncoming winter. If at such a moment, the Fuhrer were to raise the problem of Syria in a declaration, those elements in France which were under de Gaulle’s influence would receive new strength. They would interpret the Fuhrer’s declaration as an intention to break up France’s colonial empire and appeal to their fellow countrymen that

5. Page 884 Documents on German Foreign Policy

Documents on German Foreign Policy – pg 884

(transcript pg. 884)

they should rather make common cause with the English to try to save what still could be saved. A German declaration regarding Syria would in France be understood to refer to the French colonies in general, and that would at the present time create new troubles in western Europe, which means that a portion of the German armed forces would be immobilized in the west and no longer be available for the campaign in the east.

The Fuhrer then made the following statement to the Mufti, enjoining him to lock it in the uttermost depths of his heart:

1. He (the Fuhrer) would carry on the battle to the total destruction of the Judeo-Communist empire in Europe.
2. At some moment which was impossible to set exactly today but which in any event was not distant, the German armies would in the course of this struggle reach the southern exit from Caucasia.
3. As soon as this had happened, the Fuhrer would on his own give the Arab world the assurance that its hour of liberation had arrived. Germany’s objective would then be solely the destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the protection of British power.In that hour the Mufti would be the most authoritative spokesman for the Arab world. It would then be his task to set off the Arab operations,which he had secretly prepared.When that time had come, Germany could also be indifferent to French reaction to such a declaration.

Once Germany had forced open the road to Iran and Iraq through Rostov; it would be also the beginning of the end of the British World Empire. He (the Fuhrer) hoped that the coming year would make it possible for Germany to thrust open the Caucasian gate to the Middle East. For the good of their common cause, it would be better if the Arab proclamation were put off for a few more months than if Germany were to create difficulties for herself without being able thereby to help the Arabs.

He (the Fuhrer) fully appreciated the eagerness of the Arabs for a public declaration of the sort requested by the Grand Mufti. But he would beg him to consider that he (the Fuhrer) himself was the Chief of State of the German Reich for five long years during which he was unable to make to his own homeland the announcement of its liberation. He had to wait with that until the announcement could be made on the basis of a situation brought about by the force of arms that the Anschluss had been carried out.

The moment that Germany’s tank divisions and air squadrons had made their appearance south of the Caucasus, the public appeal requested by the Grand Mufti could go out to the Arab world.

The Grand Mufti replied that it was his view that everything would come to pass just as the Fuhrer had indicated. He was fully reassured and satisfied by the words which he had heard form the Chief of the German State. He asked, however, whether it would not be

Documents on German Foreign Policy – pg 885

(transcript of pg 885)

possible, secretly at least, to enter into an agreement with Germany of the kind he had just outlined for the Fuhrer.

The Fuhrer replied that he had just now given the Grand Mufti precisely that confidential declaration.

The Grand Mufti thanked him for it and stated in conclusion that he was taking his leave from the Fuhrer in full confidence and with reiterated thanks for the interest shown in the Arab cause.

It is said that Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini’s mixture of Nazi propaganda, Islam and Arab nationalism served an inspiration for Yasser Arafat,Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 until his death in 2004.

The chief goal of the Palestinians leadership now, under Mahmoud Abbas is the same as what it was under Yasser Arafat and what it was under Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini.

They do not want a ‘two-state’ solution – they want the final solution.

The Palestinian goal is now what is always has been — the establishment of an independent Arab state in ALL the land that once belonged to the British Mandate for Palestine and the complete eradication of the Jewish national homeland, Israel.